SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Hospital District Board of Managers unanimously approved a deal allowing University Health to purchase the Christus Santa Rosa Hospital – Medical Center campus that was closed in April.
The planned $71 million acquisition will further extend University Health’s footprint — this time not far from its flagship campus.
Officials with both nonprofit health systems said the two organizations plan to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with the intent of transferring ownership of the hospital campus to University Health.
The hospital anchors a 45-acre campus that also includes two medical office buildings, a multistory parking structure and a solar farm. University Health plans to spend another $20 million on equipment and to fund renovations of the nearly 40-year-old hospital, according to documents obtained by the Business Journal.
The decision comes as University Health continues work on a pair of new hospitals — one in South San Antonio and the other in Selma — as demand for care continues to spike. It’s not immediately clear when the transaction would close, but the deal could speed up additional expansion.
“The location and size of the Christus Medical Center property and the timing of this opportunity could not be better as we are experiencing unprecedented growth in patient volumes,” University Health President and CEO Ed Banos said.
“This transaction ensures that the facility continues to meet the needs of area residents with the same spirit of compassion and excellence that Christus is known for,” Christus Health President and CEO Ernie Sadau said.
In June 2024, not long before retiring as the longtime president and CEO of University Health, George Hernandez said the organization was exploring the development of a new tower in the Medical Center that could provide its nearby flagship hospital some needed relief.
More recently, his successor, Banos, said University Health was still pursuing that idea.
“We’ve been looking at opportunities where we could take services that don’t need to be in the hospital out of the hospital,” Banos said.
The Christus deal could alleviate some of that pressure, providing University Health access to more immediate additional infrastructure.
Christus Santa Rosa Health System CEO Grant Wicklund told me in February that the decision had been made to close the nearly 236,000-square-foot Medical Center hospital in late April.
He gave a hint much sooner that Christus might be looking to exit the property.
“We’re surrounded there by behemoths that make it difficult to even find the place,” Wicklund told me in 2023. “It is an older campus. There’s no question that it’s got challenges, intrinsic challenges.”
The plan, according to University Health officials, is to develop the hospital campus as an inpatient and ambulatory care center, while moving non-critical services out of its main hospital.
Read more of this story at the San Antonio Business Journal website.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between TheTXLoop and the San Antonio Business Journal.
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